Reverting Back To Her Old Self

Kotome was making tea for her and Stella. She walked back to the dining room table and set down two cups of tea then sat down in front of Stella and smiled. Stella looked at the tea cup and blushed a bit, feeling kinda embarrassed. Kotome took a sip of her tea and set the cup back down.

"Aren't you gonna try the tea?" Kotome asked.

"Y-Yeah...It's just..you don't hate me?" Stella asked.

"Hate you? Why would I ever hate you?" Kotome giggled. "I was just like you, gone for 11 years. No one has heard from me till now."

"You went missing also?" Stella looked up.

"Yeah. Went out on a training journey. Have you heard of a country named Xoskea? It's a beautiful place, ruled by Three Kingdoms. It's peaceful and I was able to meet a lot of demons, angels, and people like us. There's this one woman and her familiar named Aihara and Ake...I've only had a few encounters with her so far. I do plan on going back and living there." Kotome smiled.

"Xoskea...I can't say I've heard of that place." Stella sighed a bit.

"Loosen up mom. It's not like I'm gonna bite your head off." Kotome said.

Stella smiled a bit and closed her eyes then shook her head. Kotome stood up and walked to the closet in the storage room and took out a board game. She quickly came back to the dining room table and sat down in the chair.

"Let's play a game called Manipulation. I wanna see if you still have your intelligence." Kotome smiled. "Are you the same Stella I know?"

Stella was a bit hesitant, but agreed to play. Kotome took out the board and the pieces the set it up. She finished setting it up and placed two separate stack cards down, one at her end and one at Stella's end.

"Alright the rules of the game, this is a game the brain and your power to manipulate your opponent with trickery and intelligence. The goal of the game is to defeat your opponent by taking down their piece. Manipulation is key." Kotome smiled.

"Alright." Stella nodded.

"First we both draw three cards." Kotome said. They both drew three cards. "The three cards will always be a move space card, a spell card, and an attack card. Both sides have monsters on their respective sides, you can make your monsters more powerful and play defense but you'll make no moves, or charge forward with a frontal assault. I won't state the effects the spells or traps have because that's where the fun really starts. Aihara showed me this game and I really enjoyed it."

"I think I understand the game. Something like this could be a video game." Stella smiled.

"Let the game begin! Do you want to go first?" Kotome asked.

"Uh sure." Stella nodded.

Stella looked at her three cards. One move card with the number 3. She looked at the board and noticed the board was pretty long and wide. She could move one piece forward backwards, left, or right. She could see where the intelligence comes in but the manipulate part she didn't understand. She looked at the spell card. Monster Boost: Boosts all monsters strength by 4. She looked at the trap card. Protect: Adds counter to all monsters but shows as Defense. The card looked like a spell card and now she understands the trickery with the game.

"I play Monster Boost first." Stella placed the spell card on the machine then the card glowed and boosted the power of the monsters on her side. It wasn't an ordinary board game as she figured out. "Then I play Protect!"

"Two spells..?" Kotome said.

Stella played the card and the card glowed and put 3 counters on her monsters but it showed as a Defense Boost to Kotome. Stella didn't play her move card and ended her turn.

"You didn't move. I forgot to mention, some monsters can hit diagonally. Those monsters are called Area of Damage Monsters. Crowd Control you can say. If two monsters have the same stats, their attacks are negated. Same attack, but different defense the one with the lower defense takes damage. Different attack, same defense, the one with the higher attack wins the battle. Your main piece called the Summoner Piece can't move from their spot. Only the monsters can deal damage to the Summoner and the Summoner can deal damage to the monster. The Summoners can't damage one another." Kotome said.

"This game is pretty complex." Stella said.

"My turn, I move my Vampire Girl up two spaces!" Kotome said and the Vampire Girl moved forward two spaces. "Now I play Vampiric Force! It boosts my Vampire Girl's attack by 5. Finally I use Negate Boost. Your monsters lose all boosts made by Spell Cards."

All of Stella's monsters lost their plus four boost in Attack, but didn't lose their Counter Boost because it was given by a trap card. Kotome rose an eyebrow and ended her turn.

"My go." Stella drew a card. A spell card named: Backspace. It moves all monsters that made an advancement in moves back by 3 places. "I play Backspace. Your Vampire Girl moved back to its original spot since she moved only 2 places. Now I will move my Dullahan up three spaces!"

She played the cards and her Dullahan moved forward three spaces. Stella ended her turn and looked at Kotome. Kotome smirked and saw the old Stella.

"My turn." Kotome drew a card and looked at Stella. "I play a Spell Card named Triple Arrow. I shuffle my deck and draw three cards. For all spell cards I draw, your Summoner takes 25 points of HP Damage."

Kotome quickly shuffled her deck and drew three cards. One was a move card, the other two were spell cards. Stella's Summoner HP went from 350 to 300. The two spell cards are then discarded in the Discard pile. Stella watched then heard a knock at the door and she got up to answer it. She saw Miyuna at the door panting and pointed back.

"Saya...Saya's been kidnapped!" Miyuna said and looked upset.

"What..? Who did it..?!" Stella looked at Miyuna.

"Some Demon who works for Omusa! Her name is Pix! Please...Stella...help...If there was a time to ever come back...now is the time. Please help me get her back." Miyuna wiped her eyes of her tears.

Stella looked at Miyuna and placed a hand on her head. She walked past Miyuna. Miyuna looked back and looked at Stella.

"I'll get her back...This will not go unpunished." Stella walked through a portal and the portal closed.

"Let me go! What do you want with me?!" Saya gripped the bars of the cage she was put in.

"Oh...nothing...I didn't kidnap you for me, Omusa actually wants you. Trust me I have nothing I can do with you. I'm just simply following orders." Pix said.

"You'll regret doing this to me." Saya glared. "Stella will be coming here I know she will!"

"Stella? That old washed up woman? Ha! Don't make me laugh. She doesn't care about any of you anymore. She's too depressed to do anything, hell too depressed to face any of you in the eyes. Everyone's moved on from her and yet you always keep hope that she cares about you? You're lost, can't you see that she doesn't care about you? If she did, she wouldn't have hid away for 11 years." Pix said.

"If I didn't care, I wouldn't have come at all..." Stella said and walked into the room where Saya was being held.

"Stella!" Saya's eyes lit up happily.

"Well well, you surely surprised me. I didn't think I'd ever see you in the Human Realm anymore." Pix laughed.

"Shut up." Stella said and balled her hands into fists then her aura appeared.

"Look at you. The Hero...well I can't call you a hero because your home was destroyed. You are still a pathetic witch, it's unfortunate that you let thousands of people die...you could have saved them but...nope you couldn't even manage to save your own family." Pix walked to Stella and pat her cheeks. "Don't worry soon you'll join them."

Stella glared at Pix and imagined it was Unknown then grit her teeth then her dark aura surged wildly and engulfed her person. Pix stumbled back and looked shocked. Insane amounts of dark aura spiralled around her body and royal blue horns grew from her head. Lightning surged around her body and her aura vanished as she transformed into her Demon Mode.

"I'm no longer hiding away from my fears, my failure to save those I wanted to protect! I'm no longer falling into the dark that I once was in! Pix, you chose the wrong girl to capture. I will end you!" Stella yelled and her eyes shined then turned Royal Blue.

Omusa felt the power and walked out of his throne room and followed where the aura was coming from. He opened the doors and saw Stella. Pix looked at Stella and gulped. Cursed marks spiralled around Stella's arms and legs.

"I don't place the burden of ending you Omusa...I will do it myself! I will avenge everyone I've lost in that war! There will be no God of Utalia once I'm finished!" Stella summoned her sword and got in a stance.

"I-I can free Saya! Just take her! Take her!" Pix said then stopped seeing Stella's eyes. She saw the eyes of hatred, the eyes of a Demon Goddess.

"No...I want you dead." Stella said and appeared in front of Pix and stabbed her with her sword, killing Pix with one strike. "It ends now Omusa...Your corruption on this world ends now!"

"Oh? You think you can stop me..?" Omusa chuckled and looked at Stella and froze. He was in a reality where it was just him and her.

"You didn't forget...what I can really do did you?" Stella smirked and her words whispered in Omusa's head.

Omusa looked around and saw shadows of Stella and heard her quiet giggled and they kept whispering, "No escape". He yelled and went to strike Stella, but she disappeared in a puff of black smoke as the Stella he struck was an illusion. The symbol for the Konrangan appeared in front of him.

"The Eye of Chaos. Chaos...an Undefeatable and Uncontrollable Force. Nothing can truly stop chaos meaning nothing can truly stop me." Stella said and a portal opened then her arm grabbed Omusa and dragged him into the infinite darkness.

Omusa yelled and reality went back to normal and he fell on his knees. Stella closed her right eye and grunted then black blood came from her right eye. Omusa held his head and panted. Stella walked towards Saya's cage and opened it then Saya ran to Stella and hugged her. Stella rubbed her head then warped them back to Kotome's home.

"Hm?" Miyuna sat up and she looked alive again as she saw Saya then ran to her and hugged her.

"I'm okay Miyuna..! I'm alright!" Saya laughed.

"Thank you Stella.." Miyuna said.

"It's no issue." Stella smiled and Kotome walked out of the kitchen and saw Stella's eye.

"You used the Konrangan?" Kotome ran to Stella.

"Konrangan?" Miyuna asked.

"Oh yeah, when he used it Omusa went crazy and fell to the ground, yelling." Saya said.

The Konrangan was a powerful eye, granting the user the ability to manipulate chaos to a further extent if the user already could control chaos. It could range from a Butterfly Effect to reducing everything to nothing. There is no limit to what one with that eye could do, it can even stop someone with the power of Requiem.

"Just a little bleeding, that's all." Stella smiled.

"Yeah black blood! That's not normal!" Kotome ran to get Stella a towel then came back with a damp tower. "Geez you're still as reckless as ever."

"I didn't know you were my mom." Stella smiled.

"Geez I might as well be, I gotta keep you in check." Kotome sighed.

It's been a while since Saya and Miyuna had ever seen Stella smile. Her smile was genuine and full of life. Kotome was like a cure to Stella as she's known Kotome since she became a Dark Queen. They were just happy they could see Stella's smile once more.